Notes on a scorecard: The Spurs are playing defense like they used to

For awhile Sunday afternoon, it was almost like wandering into a time warp.

The Spurs were playing defense almost like during their championship glory days, helping pave the way for a 95-78 victory over Portland.

Forget about all this new-fangled up-tempo running and scoring. The Spurs were making it tough for Portland to score on nearly every possession, although they needed a little early convincing to get there.

Barely 90 seconds into the game, Gregg Popovich needed to remind them of how any defense is supposed to be played. An early timeout came after Portland’s first three possessions, which resulted in an open 19-foot jumper by Wesley Matthews, Marcus Camby’s layup and a 24-foot jumper by Brandon Roy and a quick 7-2 lead for the Trail Blazers.

Popovich’s stream-of-consciousness bank of expletives during the timeout got his point across. The Spurs responded with an immediate 7-0 run that was part of a 24-10 spurt during the rest of the first quarter that gave them control of the game for good.

After allowing back-to-back 100-point games by opponents in an overtime victory over Minnesota on Nov. 24 and a loss to Dallas two nights later, the Spurs have allowed only one opponent to score more than 100 points in the last eight games.

They have been especially stingy in their last four games, limiting opponents to an average 0f 87 points on 42.9 percent shooting and forcing 16.3 turnovers per game.

Those numbers might not remind many in Spurs Nation of how the team played during the era when Bruce Bowen and Mario Elie tormented opposing offenses.

But the recent defensive turnaround has been a promising sign, particularly as the Spurs’ offense continues to hum.

It’s helped push the team’s winning streak to five games and continued the fastest start in team history. This team has gotten to 20 victories after only 23 games. That statistical feat has been done 27 times before in league history, but never by a Spurs team.

And as this one starts flashing the defensive form of previous championship teams, perhaps Popovich’s current group might be girding for a long run in the playoffs and a shot at the franchise’s fifth championship.

Here are a few observerations after watching a game that reminded me how much I love 2:30 p.m. tip-offs.

• Popovich has been on George Hill all season long not to defer to his teammates and become more forceful as an offensive weapon. It looks like it’s finally seeping in after Hill erupted for a season-best 22 points to pace San Antonio’s offensive attack.

Hill sank three 3-pointers as he stretched his streak of double-figure games to 11. It’s the longest streak of double-figure games his career as he’s averaged 15.6 points, shot 50.5 percent from the field, 50 percent from behind the 3-point arc and hit 89.8 percent of his foul shots. Confidence is becoming a key part of his offensive arsenal.

• Richard Jefferson’s stat line might have looked pedestrian (five points on 1-for-3 shooting, one 3-pointer, one rebound), but his biggest value was seen defensively. Jefferson mercilessly hounded Portland’s leading scorer Roy all over the court, limiting him to nine points on 4-for-16 shooting. It underscored San Antonio’s sticky defensive effort on Portland.

• Tim Duncan made a rare fourth-quarter appearance with a big lead, actually asking Popovich to re-enter the game with 5:50 left and the Spurs holding a seemingly safe 14-point advantage. Duncan left a little more than two and a half minutes after the lead had been pushed to 17. The move kept Tiago Splitter out of all but the final 3:33 of the game.

• When told after the game thate he had played 1,000 regular-season games in his career, Duncan almost sounded sentimental as he reflected on his career winding to a close. He’s probably telling the truth when he said he wishes he had played only 10 and still had 1,000 more in front of him. But as it is, he does have the team record for games played and has at least one season to finish up. And he’s also played in 170 playoffs games, which is more than two seasons added to the 13-plus regular seasons he’s already played.

• The Spurs’ blistering perimeter game was again critical in their victory. San Antonio hit 7-0f-10 3-pointers in the first half, before hitting a drought where they missed five straight behind the arc to start the second half. Gary Neal then hit a pair in the final 5 minutes that boosted them above 50 percent with a 52.7 percent outing. It marked the fifth time this season in San Antonio’s first 23 games that the Spurs have hit 50 percent or better as a team from behind the arc.

• That perimeter surge was fortunate for San Antonio, which struggled to get much production out of its big players in the first half. San Antonio’s forwards and centers were limited to 10 points as Portland had an 8-0 edge in second chance points. But the Spurs led by 10 — mainly because of outside shooting and guards driving to the basket which helped to an 18-16 edge in points in the paint.

• We were kidding in the chat during the game wondering when we might see a FreeTiago.com website pop up. Splitter was limited to only 3:33 of game action — and all of his playing time came at the end. It marked the second consecutive game where his playing time was low after playing only 1:04 in the game against Atlanta. Sunday’s game seemingly was an ideal game to put him in against Portland’s big inside players. But Popovich decided to go with other players — even inserting Duncan back into the game. It looks like Splitter’s role on the team will be as a gigantic insurance policy in case fatigue or injuries should strike any of the other Spurs’ big players.

• Of course, it’s hard to argue with the strong game of Antonio McDyess, who had a typically productive line like he’s been producing during his entire career. In a little more than 23 minutes, McDyess had six points, six rebounds, two assists and even came up with a team-high three steals. Those number showcase his value as a role player.

• Portland enforcer/center Joel Przybilla lived up to his reputation when he picked up a flagrant foul for tossing Tony Parker to the ground like a rag doll late in the third quarter. But amazingly, he probably deserved the flagrant foul 14 seconds later on San Antonio’s next possession. On that play, the 7-foot-1, 245-pound Przybilla grabbed 6-foot-7, 270-pound DeJuan Blair in a horse-collar tackle that would have drawn him 15 yards in the NFL in a stop that James Harrison would have been proud of.

It’s hard to measure intent on those kind of flagrant fouls. But if Przybilla deserved one, it was more on the second foul than his first.

• Parker has been hobbled recently with an injury on the middle finger of his shooting hand and it showed in a 6-for-16 shooting performance than ended a recent surge. Parker had hit 59.6 percent from the field and averaged 18.8 points per game in his last four contests. But Parker found other ways to be useful, grabbing a season-high six rebounds and contributing a team-high six assists along with two steals.

• As expected, Blair had troubles against the Portland’s long collection of inside players — that is when he wasn’t being horse-collared. Blair still scored eight points and grabbed six rebounds, but didn’t score his first basket until a reverse layup with 4:42 left in the third quarter.

• The Trail Blazers’s ragged performance was understandable considering the Spurs caught them on the final game of a three-game, four-night road swing that was exascerbated by the early tipoff Sunday afternoon. Something tells me that Nate McMillan probably didn’t like the early start nearly as much as I did.